Third Time's A Charm
by fee allemande
Summary: Veronica's hand was poised midair, ready to knock again when the door swung open. Where Veronica heads after the end of episode 2.20.


**The Third Time's A Charm**

**Summary:** Oneshot; Where does Veronica go after she leaves Logan's building at the end of "Look Who's Stalking" (Written before the airing of the next episode. So likely as soon as that airs, this will become an AU ficlet). And if you really don't want the surprise, skim to the bottom; I've listed the pairing there. (But really, even though I've started out with a nondescript "He," you only have to read a few paragraphs to get to names.)

**Spoilers: **A few things from season 1, and episodes 2.10 and 2.20, but nothing about the big mysteries or anything.

oOo

At first he thought the pounding was part of his dream; it was muffled and faraway, like a conversation several rooms away. As the banging continued, he stirred, was drawn from that hazy half reality into waking life.

There was a pause. He sighed and prepared to rollover, but the hiatus was brief. The knocking returned. Someone was banging incessantly on his front door. It was quick and somewhat frantic, but not quite as overwhelming as he'd first thought when the sound had cut into his sleep. Still slightly disoriented, he swung his feet out of bed and stood up. A vague inkling of propriety reminded him he was dressed for bed; in California in late spring, that meant his poker-dog boxers. Looking around, he located the jeans he'd slung on the floor when climbing into bed the night before, and tugged them on before ambling out of his bedroom and to the front door.

Veronica's hand was posed midair, ready to knock again when the door swung open. Her face was dried, tear-free, and perfectly- but not overly- made-up. Her eyes, however, red and sad, betrayed her. She offered a nervous, sweet, half smile, but she had been crying.

"I never mentioned how glad I was to find out you weren't really stalking Gia." She burst out with no pretense of etiquette.

Leo couldn't help letting a smile cross his face. He looked at Veronica, over his shoulder to clock on the wall, and back to Veronica again. He raised his eyebrows slightly.

"You had to beat down my door at 9:15 a.m. on a Saturday just to say so?" he asked. His tone was just a little irritated. He had been hurt that Veronica could even imagine accusing him of stalking her friends. He couldn't stay angry though. Knowing Veronica, he knew that her direct confrontation of him had been a simple way to reiterate what she knew inside. She'd set no traps, just asked him point blank.

"Hey. I know my Emily Post. 9 a.m. is within the socially acceptable time range for personal calls." Veronica's face was taught and overly serious, her voice was attempting playfulness.

"So Veronica, why are you _really _here?" Leo stepped out onto the front stoop next to Veronica. He still bore his smile, a slightly sleepier version of his usual easy going grin. "Need a favor?" he asked in his mumbly-cheerful voice.

"Yeah, you could say that." Veronica looked up at Leo, her mouth smiled but her eyes didn't. She sat down on the cement stoop, warm from the early May sun. Leo followed suit.

"Well I don't have the all-access deputy pass that's always so useful for you, but-" Leo started out with a shrug.

"No." Veronica cut him off with a short, hard syllable. She stared in front of her as though the street outside of Leo's apartment building fascinated her. "I just need you to pretend I haven't been ignoring you for months for just a little while." She looked down at her hands in her lap. "I just need a friend to talk to."

"That kind of favor I can help you out with." Leo joked, he looked over towards Veronica but she kept gazing down at her hands. "But you'll owe me sometime in the future."

Veronica's chuckle was halfhearted. Something really was bothering her if she was upset enough to shell her tough-girl exterior even this much. Leo's smile faded. He kept his eyes on Veronica, even though the only view she offered him was her blonde hair falling in a curtain over her face.

"Well, I just got done making a complete fool of myself." Veronica began. "Last night Logan threw this formal party- Alterna-prom. I really only went for Wallace and Mac's sakes. An evening with Dick, Madison, and the like wasn't too appetizing."

"Alterna-prom?" Leo's concern for Veronica was momentarily overshadowed by simple curiosity.

"Yeah. Logan and his buddies got Prom cancelled due to _their _underage drinking on the senior trip, so they had this party as a replacement."

"Somehow I doubt this is the extent of what brought you to cry on my doorstop."

"I cried before I came over here." Veronica said with a fake frown, her normal, snarky personality emerging. "Try to keep up." She sighed slightly, and when she spoke again, the playfulness had seeped out of her voice. "Logan was wasted. He hit on me, told me we had this _epic _relationship, blah blah blah. I freaked, bolted. The normal Veronica Mars treatment. Murder and conspiracy don't faze me, but mention matters of the heart and this girl weirds out."

Awkwardly, Leo put one arm around Veronica's shoulders. It seemed like what people did in those movie-of-the-week films when someone needed reassurance. What exactly Veronica Mars was concerned about, Leo couldn't tell. Running off after a popular guy had bared his soul might have seemed embarrassing enough to cause tears for some teenage girls; Veronica Mars had survived many more embarrassing situations.

"That's not the humiliating part." Veronica cocked her head to one side, though she kept looking down. Her blonde hair shifted, brushed across Leo's arm, tickling his skin. "For some reason, I was feeling stupid and lonely and a little flattered. I went to see him this morning. No one has ever called anything to do with me "Epic" and meant it as a compliment. I said some lame school-girl things, Logan looked at me like I was crazy, said last night was a blur and then Kendall popped out in a bathrobe."

"Oh." Leo's arm stiffened involuntarily. She was upset about Logan and wanted sympathy. He stared in front of him, focusing very intently on a mailbox across the street.

"Don't worry." Veronica finally glanced up at Leo for a moment, before following his gaze, concentrating on the same dingy mailbox. Even from here the flag looked to be in need of paint. "If you move your arm, I won't be offended." Her voice was low, quiet.

Leo had a sad, uncomfortable Mona Lisa sized smile on his face as he retracted his arm, rolled his shoulders once.

"And the thing is, I don't even know why I went there. We just don't belong together. What I had with him was not even close to love. Seeing Logan with Kendall didn't even hurt as much as it should have." Veronica shrugged; her mouth grew tiny and hard. "I felt stupid because I came _really_ close to falling for his line, and all he really wanted was to get laid. Mostly it was like, 'oh yeah, Logan's an ass…that's why I avoid him!'" She smirked slightly as she finished her diatribe.

"Well, just because he doesn't remember, doesn't mean he didn't mean it." Leo's stomach tightened as he prepared to defend Logan, "In fact it may indicate he meant it. If he was that drunk, he may have been getting loose with the truth."

"The truth isn't what he wants loose," Veronica scoffed. She glared at nothing in particular. "Actions speak louder than words. Logan is Logan, through and through. Just because he can spew poetic pick-up lines doesn't make him anything special."

"It's that bad-boy syndrome I warned you about." Leo attempted at a joke.

"I suppose my vaccine didn't work." Veronica paused a moment, sitting very still. "And this is how it goes, right? The girl usually realizes too late that the nice guy she's blown off for so long is the one with real character." Veronica darted a hopeful look at Leo's profile.

Leo raised his eyebrows slightly and exhaled. It was no lie that he had never stopped thinking about Veronica, that he had been hopeful when Veronica wanted to talk to him at the coffee shop. It was also a fact that the first attempt at a relationship with her had ended with Leo suspended after Veronica had used him, and the second ended when she dumped him for her dead best friend's boyfriend.

"I, uh, don't know what romantic comedies you watch, but I thought the girl and the guy went through contrived obstacles until they finally fell in love through a musical montage."

"In Hollywood. In real life, people screw up and spend the rest of their lives regretting their past while they waste away in complacency, hints of substance abuse sometimes occur."

"Well…" Leo glanced at Veronica out of the corner of his eye. "If the guy is so nice, why doesn't he just forgive the girl who blew it?"

Veronica sat up straight. She gazed at Leo intently. "Because the girl hurt him pretty badly, not once but twice, and then accused him of stalking her friends."

Leo turned his head to meet Veronica's eyes, and smiled softly. "Maybe she just wished he was stalking her instead."

"Bold, deputy." Veronica fought to keep the emotion off her face, but the faint reddening of her cheeks betrayed her.

"Ex-deputy." Leo's eyes saddened a little. He'd really enjoyed being a cop. Even with Lamb as sheriff, he liked working in a career that was about right trumping wrong. In theory, anyway. Leo tried to keep that part of reality.

"Ex is just a pre-fix. They're negotiable. You were a good cop, too good for private security. Maybe you just don't belong in Neptune. Our sheriff isn't exactly the icon of morality and truth."

Leo wasn't ready for Veronica to change the subject. "And what about other "ex's"?" he asked. Even for him, the voice was low and almost too mumbly to hear.

"Even after what I did? How I treated you?" Veronica's eyes bore into Leo's.

"You're not a bad person, Veronica." Leo placed his hands on Veronica's shoulders and leaned close to her, touching her forehead with his own. He blinked as the sudden closeness lead to momentarily blurred vision. "Why don't we find if what they say is true?"

"And what do '_they_' say?" Veronica took a short breath, held it.

"That the third time's a charm." Leo mumbled, nudging his mouth close to Veronica's.

Veronica bit her lip then smiled faintly. She put her own hands on Leo's waist and leaned into him. Their lips met in a soft kiss that quickly deepened. Leo's hands slid from their perch on Veronica's shoulders down to her back, pulling her close and tight. He'd craved her for a year now; he wouldn't let go again.

"No committing any felonies this time." Leo joked when they parted for air.

"No felonies." Veronica agreed, "Now, why don't we head inside?"

"Inside?" Leo didn't object, but the thought seemed random.

"Yeah." Veronica nodded, "I was thinking about something really profound you said one time."

"What was that?" Leo pulled back just enough to stare into Veronica's face fully, keeping his hands firmly on her back.

"How did you put it?" Veronica gazed off into morning sky, feigning nonchalance she ran one finger just barely under the waistband of Leo's jeans. "Oh yeah…I'm thinking I'd like to get a good long look at the ceiling above your bed."

_-END-_

**Authors Note:** Okay, I just wrote this real quick this afternoon after finally watching my taped copy of the most recent VM episode, "Look Who's Stalking." It's just a little one-shot ficlet. I'm sure the likelihood of something similar actually happening on the show are roughly the same as the odds Veronica gave Dick of him hooking up with her. However, I'm a total Leo fan and so I had to quickly write my own little follow-up to LWS before the next episode, and consequently real follow up, air. It's just my own little wish fulfillment of seeing a return of VLeo. Also I feel it is my duty to fill the world FFdotNet with VLeo fics.

**Date Written:** April 28, 2006

**Genre:** Romance

**Pairing:** Leo/Veronica


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